NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 209 



descent from age, served impressively to sliow that men had once 

 eaten and drank here. It was in 1763, in the outbreak of the 

 Pontiac war, that this fort, then recentlv surrendered to the Eni;- 

 lish, was captured, by a coup-de-maiy\, by the Indians. The Eng- 

 lish, probably doubting its safety, during the American Kevolution, 

 removed the garrison to the island, which had, indeed, furnished 

 the name of Michilimackinac before; for the Indians had, ah initio^ 

 called the old post Peekwutinong, or Headland-place, applying 

 the other name exclusively, as at this day, to the Gibraltar-like 

 island which rises up, with its picturesque cliffs, from the very 

 depths of Lake Huron. The sketch of this scene of desolation, 

 with the Island in view, is given in the second volume of my 

 Elhnohgical Researches^ Plate LIII. 



After pacing the plain of this ancient point of French settle- 

 ment in every point, we returned to our tent about eleven o'clock 

 A. M., and deemed it practicable to attempt the crossing to the island 

 in a light canoe, for, although the gale was little if any abated, 

 the wind blew fair. I concurred in the opinion of Captain Doug- 

 lass that this might be done, and very readily assented to try it, 

 leaving the men in the baggage canoe to effect the passage when 

 the wind fell. It cannot be asserted that this passage was with- 

 out hazard; for my own part, I had too much trust in my nature 

 to fear it, and, if we were ever wafted on "the wings of the wind," 

 it was on this occasion ; our boatmen, volunteers for the occasion, 

 reefing the sails to two feet, and we owed our success mainly to 

 their good management. On rounding the Ottowa point, which 

 is the south cape of the little harbor of 'Mackinac, our friends 

 who had parted from us at Green Bay were among the first to 

 greet us. By the union of these two parties, the circumnaviga- 

 tion of Lake Michigan had been completely made. The rate of 

 travel along the line traversed by them was computed at forty- 

 five miles per day. They had been eight days on the route. The 

 coast line traversed by Captain Douglass and myself, since quitting 

 Chicago, is four hundred and thirty-nine miles, giving a mean of 

 forty-three miles per diem, of which one entire day was lost by 

 head winds. 



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